The present invention relates to performance instruction apparatus and methods for, in accordance with a progression of a music piece performance, automatically indicating or instructing performance operation to be executed by a human player, and more particularly to an improved performance instruction apparatus and method which allow a human player to practice playing a musical instrument by giving easy-to-identify performance instructions to the practicing human player.
Generally, it is extremely difficult for beginners to build or acquire skills for playing a musical instrument, step by step, by actually playing the musical instrument while merely viewing a textbook with a musical score and the like written thereon. Thus, in recent years, the widespread use of personal computers has produced music training systems which allow any interested person to build or acquire skills for playing an musical instrument by connecting a personal computer and a desired electronic musical instrument. One type of performance instruction apparatus employed in such training systems is designed to visually display, on a predetermined display device, a musical score (e.g., ordinary-type musical score using notes and musical symbols) of a particular music piece to be performed, so as to sequentially indicate or instruct a changing current performance position (i.e., position to be currently performed) on the displayed musical score in accordance with reproduction of the music piece to be performed. Another type of the performance instruction apparatus employed in the training systems is designed to display, on a predetermined display device, a picture of part of an electronic musical instrument of which a user wants to build or acquire playing skills, so as to sequentially indicate or instruct positions of performance operators to be operated on the displayed musical instrument in accordance with reproduction of the music piece to be performed. Each interested user can acquire the skills for playing the electronic musical instrument, by manipulating the musical instrument while being guided by the visual instructions on the display device. Namely, the conventionally-known performance instruction apparatus can provide a visual assistance, aid or guide for user""s performance operation on the musical instrument by graphically displaying, via the predetermined display device, each current performance position on the displayed musical score, each performance operator to be currently operated, or the like.
However, the conventional performance instruction apparatus merely display a picture of part of a desired musical instrument to allow a user or human player to visually identify the position of each performance operator to be operated on the musical instrument. Therefore, in a situation where a novice player wants to learn how to play a musical instrument, such as a drum set, to be played using the entire body (including both hands and both feet) of the human player, and if only the position of each performance operator (in the case of the drum set, any one of a crash cymbal, hi-hat cymbals, bass drum, snare drum, tamxe2x80x94tam, etc.) to be operated on the musical instrument, the novice player often does not know how or with which style or mode the performance operator should be actually operated (e.g., which of the left and right hands should be used to operate the performance operator), so that the player may wrongly use the right hand to operate the performance operator that should be operated with the left hand. Namely, in such a case, the performance style with which the player actually plays the musical instrument tends to deviate from the correct performance style which the player should use. The deviation in the performance style would bring about significant inconveniences, such as a slight deviation between correct performance timing and actual timing of the player""s performance operation.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a performance instruction apparatus and method which allow a user or human player to readily know visually how each performance operator should be operated for a desired musical performance by, in accordance with reproduction of a music piece to be performed, not only visually indicating a particular body part to be used for operating the performance operator and but also graphically displaying model performance motion to be made for operating the performance operator.
In order to accomplish the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a performance instruction apparatus which comprises: a supply section that supplies performance data; a processing section that executes a reproduction process for reproducing the supplied performance data; a display section; a control section that causes the display section to display a performance picture representative of model performance motion with which a music piece corresponding to the performance data reproduced by the processing section is being played by a model player using a predetermined musical instrument; and a display control section that, in accordance with a progression of reproduction of the performance data, changes a display style, on the performance picture displayed via the display section, of each musical instrument or portion thereof to be played currently into a particular display style corresponding to a body part of a player to be used for playing the musical instrument or portion thereof.
According to the present invention, a performance picture is displayed which indicates model performance motion with which a music piece corresponding to the performance data reproduced by the processing section is being played by a model player using a predetermined musical instrument. Also, in the present invention, each musical instrument or a portion of the musical instrument which is to be played currently is displayed, in accordance with a progression of the reproduction of the performance, in a particular display style corresponding to a player""s body part that is to be used for playing the musical instrument or portion thereof. Thus, by just viewing the display, a user (practicing human player) is allowed to readily know visually which musical instrument or portion thereof should be operated or played and which body part of the player should be used for operating or playing the musical instrument or portion thereof. Thus, the present invention can be of great help to the user (practicing human player) in acquiring the skills for playing the musical instrument.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a performance instruction apparatus which comprises: a supply section that supplies performance data and musical score data of a music piece and performance motion picture data representative of model performance motion with which the music piece is being performed by a model player using a predetermined musical instrument; a display section; and a control section that executes a reproductive performance of the music piece on the basis of the performance data and causes the display section to display a musical score picture on the basis of the musical score data and a performance picture representative of model performance motion on the basis of the performance motion picture data while controlling the display, by the display section, of the musical score picture and the performance picture, in synchronism with a progression of the reproductive performance of the music piece. Thus, the present invention allows all of the reproductive performance, display of the musical score and display of the performance picture representative of the model performance motion to be carried out in synchronism with each other. The performance data, musical score data and performance motion picture data may include time data that are based on respective time scales, in which case the control section may convert the respective time data of the performance data, musical score data and performance motion picture data into time data based on a common time scale and cause the reproductive performance and display based on the performance data, musical score data and performance motion picture data to progress in synchronism with each other on the basis of the common time scale.
The present invention may be constructed and implemented not only as the apparatus invention as discussed above but also as a method invention. Also, the present invention may be arranged and implemented as a software program for execution by a processor such as a computer or DSP, as well as a storage medium storing such a program. Further, the processor used in the present invention may comprise a dedicated processor with dedicated logic built in hardware, not to mention a computer or other general-purpose type processor capable of running a desired software program.
While the embodiments to be described herein represent the preferred form of the present invention, it is to be understood that various modifications will occur to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. The scope of the present invention is therefore to be determined solely by the appended claims.